414 



THE DISEASES AND DISORDEES OP THE OX. 



flows through the nose and mouth. It may be a result of acute 

 pulmonary congestion, of laceration of the lung-tissue, or of 

 certain specific disorders such as give rise to ulceration of the 

 lungs or cause congestion. For example, haemoptysis may be 

 due to tuberculosis. 



PNEUMONIA AND PLEURISY. 

 Pneumonia, or infl^immation of the lungs, is not a common 

 -disease in oxen; but it is much more frequently met with co- 

 existing with pleurisy, or inflammation of the lining membrane 

 of the chest and lungs. Our readers will recollect that we have 

 already spoken at full length of the infectious disease termed 

 pleuro-pneumonia, a malady which is one of the most deadly 

 of the bovine scourges ; we now have, however, to discuss only 



Fig. 49. 



-Last Stage of Sporadic Pneumonia. 



the simple and non-infectious inflammations of tlie breathing 

 organs, for the most part we may say dependent upon cold, 

 damp, or chill, for their immediate causation. 



Cases of simple inflammation of the lungs are, as might be 

 expected, more commonly seen in working oxen than in feeding 

 beasts. The onset of the disease, which is not difficult of detec- 

 tion, is, as a rule, sudden, and not uncommonly characterised 

 by shivering fits. We have already stated that an ox in health 

 breathes about twelve to eighteen times a minute, and the pulse 

 numbers from forty to fifty per minute. It is a little odd 

 that those who have most to do with oxen seldom or never 

 acquire the knowledge where to take the pulse, although one 

 often finds that horse-owners are well acquainted with the way 



